In 1928, the president of the Bement, Illinois Women’s Club came up with a way to honor American authors when she proposed the celebrating of  National Author’s Day.  November 1 was adopted by the General Federation of Women’s Clubs as the day to do so.  Her original intention was to find a way to thank a fiction author who wrote her favorite story and who sent her a signed copy of another novel.

        “Words from Above” in the Bible in II Timothy 3:16 say tell us that the scriptures in the Bible were given by inspiration of God and intended to be profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and for instruction in righteous-ness.  The apostle Peter in II Peter 1 urges people to pay attention to the words of Scripture, describing them as a light shining in a dark place.  He makes the very important point that the scripture did not originate with the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.

        The Bible consists of 66 different books written over a period of 1600 years by more than 40 kings, prophets, leaders, and followers of Jesus.  The Old Testament has 39 books, written from approximately 1500-400 B. C..  The New testament has 27 books, written from approximately A. D. 45-100.  The Old testament was written mainly in the Hebrew language, with some in Aramaic, whereas the new Testament was written in the Greek language.  The books of the Bible were collected, arranged, and recognized as inspired sacred authority by councils of rabbis and councils of church leaders based on careful guidelines.

        Before the printing press was invented, the Bible was copied by hand very accurately, in many cases by special scribes who developed intricate methods of counting words and letters to insure that no errors were made.  The Bible was the first book ever printed on a printing press with movable type, namely the 1455 Latin Bible on the Gutenberg Press.  Thousands of copies were made by hand before A. D. 1500, with more than 5,900 Greek manuscripts from the New Testament alone still existing today.  The text of the Bible is better preserved that the writings of Caesar, Plato, and Aristotle.

        By A. D. 200, the Bible was translated into seven languages, 13 by 500 A. D., 17 languages by A. D. 900, 28 languages by A. D. 1400, 57 by  A. D. 1800, 537 by 1900, and 1,100 by 1980.  Today there are still 2,000 people groups with no Bible in their own language.  Regardless of these statistics, the most important thing is for people to read it for themselves personally.

Larry R. Steffee is pastor of the Center Hill Brethren In Christ Church on Miller Road in Smithville.  Everyone is welcome to attend.  For information, you may email lrsteffeetn@yahoo.com.